I'm 20 years old and have quite a few, incredibly annoying floaters. I know that I have had these for quite some time, as I remember asking my parents about them as a little kid. Recently, I just started really paying attention to them and now I cannot stop squinting, looking at lights and staring at them. I'm not sure if they have gotten worse or I have just started to fixate on them. I'm pretty nearsighted as well.

Anyway, I am terrified that with these floaters at a young age, my eye will be full of them as I get older.

My question is: are floaters usually somewhat progressive? Everything I've read says they are part of the "aging process". If you have them early on, does that mean that they will continue to get worse?

Hello. I recall being only about 25 when I first consulted my ophthamologist about floaters. He looked into my eyes and remarked what they were. I asked if they could be removed! (They cannot.)

It's a part of life, and the aging process, even if you are young. I don't think mine have gotten so much "worse". There might be a few more. There are times when they are more noticeable and annoying, but I really don't pay so much attention to them anymore.

I hope you are having regular eye exams by a qualified ophthamologist. It's very important to take good care of your eyes.

I'm 42 and I have had floaters on both my eyes ever since I have memory. I still remember when I was 6 years old sitting beside my mom and I told her: "Mom, I see a lot of dust flying around the room". My parents didn't know much about floaters so no one paid attention to it until I reached late teens and started questioning my doctor.

Floaters are dead retina cells. Once dead, they fall off. When they just fell off, they are right in front of your retina so the images of them are very clear. Over time they float away from your retina so the images of them become blurry. Some doctor might say floaters will go away but fact is, they don't. Small floaters simple get blurry over time and less noticeable or you simply gotten used to them. In my case, floaters really affected me. I like to stay in darker environment and I also can't concentrate on reading.

Some floaters are caused by aging. Eyeball gets longer and retina can only stretch so much. Some floaters are caused by blood vessel on retina having problems supplying blood to the edge to keep cells alive. Latter is likely the cause for young people with floaters.

I've seen a retina specialist in my area and I was told there is a procedure that can be done. It involves flushing the fluids in your eyeball and replacing with clear fluids. I am bothered by the floaters so much, I actually don't mind doing it, but he told me such procedure is for extreme case. At my age, I still have 20/25 vision. He explained to me that such a procedure would likely introduce a positive or negative pressure in the eyeball which means I would need glasses. So, in my case, it's not worth the risk losing good eyesight.

Will it get worse? Maybe, maybe not. The worst would be the 'sunset' where the retina just completely falls off and your vision slowly goes to complete darkness at the same rate as the retina falls to the bottom of your eyeball. Scary just thinking about it.

One time about 5 years ago. I was just riding on a bus heading to work. I suddenly see a red patch. With the understand of the cause of my floaters, I instantly know that that was bleeding inside my eyeball. The movement of my eyeball pulled the patch into a streak. At the end of the day, the blood had disappeared. I guess I should say difused into the fluid in the eyeball. Now, on that eye, the image is a little browner than the other eye. I guess the blood added a shade in the fluid. Of course I went to see eye doctor. The advise I got was: "When you have a bowel movement, don't bear down so hard. The tiny blood vessel in your eyeballs may not be able to take the pressure.".